Missing You
by jewlbird
Summary: Percy has disappeared from Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth and the rest of Percy's friends are left behind, missing him, albeit in different ways. Can they recover after losing their friend, or will they still be missing him? *Extended summary inside*
1. Chapter 1

**Percy has disappeared from Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth and the rest of Percy's friends are left behind, missing him, albeit in different ways. Can they recover after losing their friend, or will they still be missing him?**

**This story is going to take place in multiple Points of Veiews, so you can really get the idea of how Percy's different friends missed him. Most of it is going to take place in Annabeth's POV, however, because I feel like I can really capture the physical aspects of her sorrow better from the perspective of someone else. Hope you enjoy :)**

**Also, I did the best I could setting up his disappearence, so sorry if that's not really what happened :/**

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><p>I knew something was wrong moment my eyes fluttered open. Not the, "we're out of bacon for breakfast" type of wrong. Something was dead wrong. My stomach churned, and I glanced around my cabin, which was slightly illuminated by the light of dawn. My siblings were all sleeping still, everything in order still. I reached under my pillow for Daedalus's laptop. I had been sleeping with it under my pillow ever since I got it last summer. Just in case. But the laptop was still there, as it always was.<p>

I attempted to go back to sleep, but I just couldn't shake the terrible feeling that something was dreadfully off.

Finally, I slipped from bed, not bothering to change out of my pajama's, a ragged old camp T-shirt and a beat up pair of old sweat pants. I pulled on my tennis shoes and exited the cabin as fast as I could.

Outside, the ground was lightly dusted with snow. I saw that the rest of the cabins were still dark, save the Aphrodite's. The girls- and guys for that matter- all got up early so they could get the showers they wanted and carefully apply their makeup.

Right now, they were skittering in and out of the bathroom, trying to keep their over-gelled hair-dos from freezing.

Trust me on this, you do not want to get between a child of Aphrodite and their favorite shower stall. I promise you, it won't be pretty. I've has to learn the hard way.

The few of the all year campers sniggered at me, and Drew, their head counselor, heaved a dramatic sigh. I didn't want to think about how I looked right now- I had just rolled out of bed. But I did smooth my hair down, my hand trailing over the tangled waves. What can I say? Drew makes every girl at camp at least a little self-conscious, even me.

I continued up the path, past the strawberry fields. The smell of fresh berries wafted past me, though it was much too cold for any berries to have survived the frost this morning. The frozen bushes ruffled, like something was slithering through them, but I didn't investigate, though. I just kept on walking, determined to get to the Big House and talk to Chiron. Maybe he could get to the bottom of this.

A few seconds later, I heard stealthy footsteps crunching in the snow behind me, and I whirled around. In the dim light, Connor Stohl's dirt-smeared face grinned at me.

"Hey, Annabeth," he greeted me, his face flushes from the cold. "What are you doing up so early?"

Now, if the one of the Stohl brothers is up at five A.M., you can pretty much bet that he is up to no good. Actually, you can pretty much always bet he's up to no good, period.

I gave him a cautious look, glancing down at his hands. Clutched in one was a trowel, which most definitely wasn't his- one of the Demeter kids wasn't going to be happy at breakfast, was my guess. Something gleamed in the other.

"Connor," I said sharply. "Is that Chris Rodriguez's watch?" Chris had lost his watch a couple of weeks ago, an expensive gift from his grandmother, who he had recently reconnected with. I knew perfectly well that it was Chris's watch, and that Connor must have had a _fantastic_ digging it up.

"Now Annabeth," Connor started, but I cut him off by grabbing his wrist and dragging him with me in the direction of the Big House.

"To answer your question," I said, "I'm going to the Big House. You wouldn't mind joining me?" I gave him a try-to-get-away-and-you'll-regret-it look. As expected, he nodded compliantly.

I didn't release my hold on him until the door to the Big House shut behind up. I always seemed to be dragging one Stohl or another up here like this, or else to the owner of the snatched object. Last week it had been Travis to my half-brother Malcolm.

Apparently, he though it would be a riot if he strung up Malcolm's owl-printed boxers on the flag pole. How he had known Malcolm had owl-printed boxers, I didn't want to know, but it was particularly embarrassing for the Athena cabin- not to mention poor Malcolm.

Connor seemed to be reading my mind. "Travis said he was sorry about the underwear. No need to hold a grudge."

I frowned. How would he like it if his parent's godly symbol was displayed on a PAIR of UNDERWEAR for the whole camp to see? I was about to ask him, but I figured he would probably want to commend whoever had had that brilliant idea, just as he had his brother for doing it to Athena.

"Whatever," I dismissed. "I'm not mad... Not really, anyway. Let's just talk to Chiron."

As I had hoped, we caught Chiron just before his morning jog. He was talking to Mr. D in the rec room. I caught the words, _Percy__Jackson_, which was no surprise. He was on a quest. In fact, he was supposed to come back early this morning.

I didn't know the exact details, but I think it involved getting a couple of younger demigods out of a sticky situation. I would just have to ask him later. I didn't want to disturb him, since he was probably really tired.

I smiled when I thought of him, all cute in his battle armor, his head sticking out the front window of one of the camp vans, right before he left. He had kissed me right on the lips, in front of everyone, then quickly pulled his head back in the window and stepped on the gas. I knew my cheeks were red as one of Apollo's sacred cattle, but I was too giddy to notice. It still felt unreal to have Percy, no strings attached. No monsters THIS close to killing him, no prophecies threatening to tear him away from me when he turned sixteen. Just us.

"Annabeth? Connor?" Chiron turned toward us, and Mr. D scowled.

"Good morning, Chiron, Mr. D," I greeted politely.

"Good moring, Mr. D. Good morning Chiron," Connor recited, putting on his best face of innocence.

"Mr. D huffed. "Good morning, indeed," he complained. "Not any morning I'm here." He said here like he'd rather be in the pits of Hades than Camp Half-Blood. He crossed his arms, and we heard the door to the front porch slam.

"Is something wrong?" I asked Chiron. His face was rather downcast, drawn and unhappy. It took him a minute to answer.

"All in good time, Annabeth," he replied. "Now, to business… You wanted ask me something?"

"Well, I already did," I said sheepishly. Chiron scowled. "Something doesn't feel right. I couldn't sleep."

"Now, young child of Athena," Connor said. Lecture time. "You can't come crying to Chiron every time you have a nightmare. If you'll go to the Hypnos cabin, like me, they'll surely have something to knock you out." I knew he was just kidding around whenever he said stupid stuff like this, but it still annoyed me. I already had two, no three parents pretty much.

I just rolled my eyes. Chiron ignored me altogether, which wasn't like him at all.

"What brings you here, Connor?" He inquired, cocking his head. He knew there were only two reasons Connor Stohl ever came to him, reason one being to steal something from the Big House, and reason two being to confess the act of stealing from one person or another.

I cut across them both. "We'll get to that," I promised. "What's up, Chiron?"

"We will also get to that," he said, a little impatiently, which also wasn't like him. "Connor?"

Connor held out the watch and the trowel, the look on his face anything but remorseful. "I kind of took these…"

"This is Christopher Rodriguez's watch?" Chiron guessed, and I nodded. "And the trowel?"

"Katie Gardener's," Connor told him, "but please don't tell her I took it. She'll wrap me up in vines!" Katie was notorious for her ill-tolerance of the Stohls. She didn't like them anywhere near the strawberry fields.

"You will take both of these items back to their owners at breakfast," Chiron ordered. "Now, back to bed, both of you."

"Chiron," I insisted. "What is-?"

"Bed, Annabeth," he snapped, his tone shocking me. He never acted his way towards anyone, let alone me. I nodded quickly, the back of my eyes stinging with tears, and I ran from the room.

"Goodbye, Annie Belle," Mr. D called after me around his can of Diet Coke.

My feet pounded down on the ground as I ran to the empty dining pavilion. I wound around the tables until I reached the one designated to my cabin. I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes.

In my dream, Percy was asleep, too. And he was just lying there, snoring like an ape with a cold. He was even drooling a little.

I know that girlfriends and boyfriends dream about each other, no matter how cliché that sounds, and I'm no exception. I am, however, a demigod, and demigod dreams are rarely normal, _I__was__just__thinking__of__you_ dreams. So naturally, any dreams I'd ever had about Percy were the, _I__think__you__'__re__going__to__die_, type of dreams. I hadn't had any of the dreams since the Great Prophecy came true, and I already knew he was in danger at that point, so I didn't really feel like I had to say anything, but _this_ was strange.

Nothing was really happening, besides Percy dozing away in a dark space. He was all I could see, like a halo of light was surrounding him. It was actually kind of cute, minus the drool and the snoring, so I just watched until I heard murmuring around me.

I thought I recognized Clarisse's voice, sounding sympathetic, something I hadn't heard in a while.

"She must know already," she said, like I wasn't sitting right there.

"That must be why she wasn't at the counselor's meeting," said another voice that I didn't as readily recognize, a guy.

I lifted my head. Clarisse was leaning on the Hermes' table, talking to Will Solace from the Apollo cabin. When they saw me looking at them, Clarisse turned away quickly, and Will gave me a compassionate look, like he totally felt for me.

_What__in__Hades__is__going__on?_ Maybe Percy would know. But then, he was probably sleeping in his cabin like I had just dreamed.

Daphne, one of my younger siblings rushed up to the table, ahead of the slew of campers that were all making there way up to the dining pavilion. She was about nine-years-old, skinny, and had wavy, honey-blonde hair like all the rest of my siblings and me.

She plopped down right next to me and gave me a big hug. "I'm so sorry!" she blurted.

I frowned. "Sorry for what?" I asked, alarmed. Had she broken something of mine? Daedalus's laptop? I wasn't sure I could deal with that. But I would have traded fifty of Daedalus's stupid computers for what she was about to tell me not to be true.

"About Percy," she said.

"What about him?" I asked, and that bad feeling stirred in the pit of my stomach.

She bowed her head. "He's gone."

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><p><strong>New chapter tommorrow! Hope you enjoy and please, please, pretty please REVIEW! :) Love ya! 3<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Switching up the POVs this time :) I hope you like Clarisse! And Annabeth is still in there at the beginning and end of the chapter because, like I said before, the majority of the story is going to be from her POV.**

**Enjoy, ya'll! **

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Percy or any of the other characters in this story, or anything that has to do with the Camp Half-Blood. All due credit goes to the awesome Rick Riordan :)**

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><p><strong><span>*Annabeth's POV*<span>**

I blinked. "What?" I asked. What was going on Percy? Percy wasn't gone. He had just gotten back this morning.

Malcolm patted her back and pushed her gently out of the seat. He sat down next to me.

"That's why you were up so early, right?" he asked me. "Chiron called a counselor's meeting in the Big House and we thought you were already up there."

I frowned. "No," I said slowly. "I did get up to talk to him this morning but he didn't say anything about-" That's when Chiron trotted up to our table in centaur form, his hooves beating against the concrete floor of the pavilion.

"Annabeth," he said, "I need you to come with me and-" I cut across him.

"It's not true, is it?" I blurted. "About Percy being missing or whatever?"

Panic welled up inside me when he pursed his lips, remaining silent.

"Is it?" I demanded.

"Well," he said finally. "That's what our counselor meeting was about. The one you failed to show up to."

"I was sleeping," I filled in. "And I had a dream about Percy. He was... Sleeping."

"Annabeth, let's talk about this in private-!"

"He's gone," Clarisse said flatly. "Two demigods showed up this morning around four o'clock when I was on watch for your dumb boyfriend." Clarisse was the only person I could think of who could sound both disrespectful and sympathetic at the exact same time. "They were alone, and when I asked them if how they got there, they said some one brought them. They were both able to describe him perfectly, said he went off to investigate some sound in the woods and never came back."

"What?" I shrieked. "He still isn't back yet?" I figured he must be around here somewhere. "Where did you find the other demigods?"

"At the base of the Hill," Clarisse replied, referring to Half-Blood Hill, the beginning of the magical barriers surrounding out camp.

"That's enough, Clarisse!" Chiron snapped as everything came crashing down on me.

Percy was gone. There were a million dangers in the woods outside the boundaries of camp. He was still invulnerable from his dip in the Styx, but that was only from combat. He could starve to death, die of sleep deprivation, or something else. I tried not to, but my mind was racing and making up billions of worst-case-scenarios. Tears stung the backs of my eyes, and as hard as I tried not to, I head in my hands and wept.

***Clarisse's POV***

As much as the girl annoyed me sometimes- I mean, who _wasn't_ annoyed by Annabeth at least sometimes? She was so pushy and she _always_ wanted to be in charge- anyway, I still felt pretty bad for her. I mean, she was my friend, and though I would never admit it, I would be pretty messed up if my boyfriend was swallowed whole by some monster- which is probably what happened to her's. Seriously, the guy was invulnerable, what else could have happened to him?

Anyway, watching her crying over there on the table kind of brought things into perspective for me. Sure it had felt good to break the awful news to her, but still.

"Think she's gonna be okay?" Will Solace from the Apollo cabin leaned over and asked me in a low voice. I shrugged. When Chris went crazy, I had kind of figured out that I liked him, and I had never really gotten over it until he was fixed up. It was a lot to handle, seeing someone you cared about in that state. Of course, since Percy was probably in some beast's digestive track as of now, Annabeth most likely wouldn't be seeing much if him, but the similarities of out situations were still there.

Chiron beckoned me and Will from where he was standing, patting Annabeth's head while she sobbed. No wonder she never cried in front of anyone else... She sounded like a drowning elephant. I smiled at the thought.

"Clarisse," Chiron said over Annabeth's sniffling elephant noises, "I want you and William to lead a search of the woods. Choose anyone you'd like, just go."

Searched the woods for Percy Retardson? Not a chance. It wasn't my fault he'd gotten lost. "Chiron," I began to protest. "I'm sure he would have found his way back if he could have..." I trailed off as Annabeth started to cry harder. I didn't think she could hear me, but she obviously could.

"Go, Clarisse, Will," Chiron ordered.

I stomped away, grumbling and pointing at a few random kids from various tables and telling them to, "Come with me," in my best menacing voice. Unfortunately, the Hermes kids that I chose was obviously a chicken, oh joy, _both_ the Stohl demons volunteered. They unceremoniously downed the remainder of their breakfasts, upturning their plates and slurping up their biscuits and gravy or scramble eggs. Then they jumped up and started assaulting my ears with worthless, meaningless chatter. All they ever did was brag about what they stole.

I'd had it after about two seconds. "Shut up, both of you," I commanded. "We're here to search for Jackson, and if you steal anything along the way, I have you're stupid heads!"

They just snickered. Unfortunately, my threats no longer mean anything to them… They never did, actually. In fact, the first time I was Travis Stohl, parading on into the bathrooms like he owned the place, I threatened him. And he laughed in my face. It happened to be the most humiliating moment of my life.

My head was about to blow off by the time we reached Half-Blood Hill. "Shut up!" Connor doubled over with laughter, probably because my face was red.

Chris, who had been walking next to me, tried to snatch up my hand, probably wanting to calm me down, but I shook him off. I didn't want to be calmed down; I want to bash two certain sons of Hermes faces in.

When we reached the top of the hill, a bird pooped on Travis's head, which made me smile. I just wished I could control those two little horrors, but no one really could, except Chiron on some rare occasions, and… Percy Jackson. He bossed them around like nothing, and they actually _listened_. But that was the only thing that Jackson could do that I couldn't do a million times better than him. If you leave out his power over water, but if I could do that, I _would_ do it better than him.

I barreled down the hill and into the woods, my arms pumping at my sides. I didn't even notice the bloody child of the messenger god until he snatched the bandana off my head.

"Oh, you're gonna get it!" I roared, tackling him.

"Ahh!" whichever one of the Stohls screamed. It was abruptly cut off when I punched him in the stomach.

"Stop!" someone cried, their voice shaky. I looked up, the Stohl's—who turned out to be Travis—leg still in my hand, waiting to be painfully twisted. Annabeth was looking down at the both of us, her eyes red and puffy. I hadn't seen her like this since… Since the last time Percy disappeared.

"I can't believe you guys!" she snapped, her voice breaking in multiple places. "Can't you just get along this one time? For Percy?"

I let go of Travis's legs. I guess I could ignore him, for Annabeth, not her head-full-of-sea-water boyfriend. I snatched the bandana off the ground and yanked it back over my short, brown hair, cracking me knuckles.

"Clarisse," Annabeth warned, but it wasn't very threatening sounding.

"Okay, okay," I said. "You," I pointed at one of the Demeter kids, "take a few others and search the base of the hill." I turned to the Connor and Travis—who has still holding his stomach. "Can you two handle looking deeper in the woods? I don't care who you take, just go."

Travis nodded mutely, while Connor said, "We're only doing this for Percy."

I rolled my eyes. I was holding back a lot of stuff for Percy, too.

***Annabeth's POV***

I managed to pull myself together and follow Clarisse, Will, and the others down to the Hill.

I figured I shouldn't be getting so worked up about this. I mean, maybe he had just decided to take a swim or something. I wasn't like him not to come back to me as soon as he could, though. Chiron was right, of course. It was too early to worry.

I ran down the Half-Blood Hill. The last time I'd done that, it'd been to say goodbye to Percy. I blinked back tears again.

_Get__it__together,__Annabeth_, I ordered myself. I pulled my sleeve roughly across my face, drying any remaining tears.

The rest of the campers were still making their way down the Hill. Travis was trailing dangerously close to Clarisse. The Stohl brothers were obviously missing Percy—they never caused so much trouble without reason.

Sure enough, Travis snatched Clarisse's infamous bandana from her head.

"Oh, you're gonna get it!" Clarisse screeched, tackling Travis. The flailed around in blur of limbs. Travis screamed.

I ran up to the pair of them, anger bubbling up inside me. Couldn't they focus on not killing each other long enough to look for Percy?

"Stop!" I shouted, and they abruptly came to a stand-still. "I can't believe you guys!" I sniffled, my voice choppy. "Can't you guys get along this one time? For Percy?"

Clarisse let go of Travis and pulled her bandana back on her head. Then she cracked her knuckles. "Clarisse," I warned.

She rolled her eyes at me and started ordering everyone around, as usual.

Connor made some smart remark that made Clarisse's face turn red with anger.

Will Solace squeezed my shoulder. "Come on. We'll keep an eye on Travis and Connor." He paused for a beat. "We'll find Percy. Promise."

I hoped he could keep it.

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><p><strong>Tell me what you thought about Clarisse's POV! <strong>**Since I'm on Winter break, you can expect plenty of updates! Please, please, pretty please REVIEW! :) :) :) :) :) : ) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) : ) **


	3. Chapter 3

**Let me know what you think about this chapter! Review, please!**

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><p>Will and I, along with a few recently claimed campers—there were tons now thanks to… You know—searched the woods for hours on end.<p>

"He's here, I swear," I murmured when Will told me it was time for lunch. Had we really been out here that long? It felt like nothing to me. I was going to find him, not matter how long it took.

"Annabeth, I don't think he's out here," Will told me gently. "But we'll find him. Come on, we have to eat."

I shook my head. "I'm going to keep looking for him," I said, eliciting an exasperated look from him.

"Don't make me call Clarisse over here," he warned me. I didn't believe he would. Apollo and Ares still had an ongoing rivalry between them. I wouldn't eat, sleep, or rest until I found Percy. Besides, it was peaceful out here, and I found it easier to collect my thoughts.

I left Will behind, venturing further into the woods. My legs felt like lead, and I could hardly keep my eyes open. My Camp T-shirt was soaked through with sweat, but I kept on looking.

Finally I slumped down to the foot of a tree, utterly exhausted. I had considered several different methods of locating Percy, most of them involving magic and trickery. I wasn't normally that type of girl, but I was desperate.

_You're the daughter of Athena!_ One part of me screamed. _Use your wisdom. You know you can. _Still, another part of me wondered if I had depleted that store. My mind felt muddled and empty, and I wanted to escape myself, if only for a few minutes. I closed my eyes, willing myself to be anywhere but here, without the one person I could always count on.

"Hey, Girly." I didn't bother opening my eyes. I already knew who it was; only one person called me Girly, knowing full well that I hated it.

"Did Will send you to get me?" I asked woefully. I heard her clomping closer and closer, until she stood right over me.

"So what if he did?" she asked. "No, it wasn't him. Chiron wants to speak with you."

I opened my eyes, thinking of how snappy Chiron had been with me all day. _Stop crying and get down there_ or, _Pull yourself together_. "What does he want with me?" I desperately wanted his comfort, but I seriously didn't want him to yell at me again. His obvious anxiety was putting me on edge. Chiron almost never worried about anything.

"He wouldn't tell me anything." Clarisse prodded me with her foot. "Get off your butt, Owl Face," she ordered.

I frowned. No one called me Owl Face, except for Percy. It was kind of cute when he did it, but when it was Clarisse, it kind of just annoyed me.

I stood, wiping my eyes. It seemed like all I was doing today was crying. "Don't call me that," I sniffed. Then something came over me. It was the strongest determination I'd ever felt in my entire life: I had to find Percy, no matter what it took.

I had been thinking this all day, but now it was like, I don't know, the idea was burned into my brain like a brand. The thought had an irritating, persistent quality, like an itch that needed to be scratched.

Clarisse turned on her heel and started back up the hill, and it took her a while to realize that I wasn't following her.

"Come on," she growled, snatching at my hand, but I pulled it away. "Hey!" she snapped. "Chiron wants to talk to you, so you're coming with me!"

I crossed my arms. "I need to find Percy. He's out here. I can feel it."

"Well you feel wrong, Not-So-Wise Girl." Clarisse continued to tug on my arm with increasing force.

"No!" I shriek, resisting as long as I could. Finally, I was forced to get to my feet if I didn't want to suffer from a dislocated shoulder. Been there, done that. Let's just say it was very, very painful.

Clarisse continued to drag me by the waist, but I latched onto any tree I can wrap my fingers around.

"Argh!" she screamed, but I held on steadfast to the tree.

Clarisse ended up dragging me screaming, tears streaming from the woods, my nails bloody from clutching all of those trees. It was pretty embarrassing, like that time I… Well, you probably don't want to know.

A lot of people stared at us with creepy interest. Well, mostly the new campers. Any old timers just went on with their business like, _Oh, look, an angry daughter of Ares with someone slung over her shoulder. Nothing to see here._

Clarisse did have me slung over her shoulder, and I pounded on her rock hard back. It did just as much good as ant kicking a T-rex in the shin. When she set me down in a chair on the Big House's wrap-around porch, I was all screamed out. I didn't meet Chiron's eyes. I couldn't, after my terribly immature behavior.

Mr. D didn't look up from his game of Solitaire, even when Chiron rose from his seat.

"Annabeth," he said slowly, and I looked up him. He was wearing a gray wool sweater—I'm not entirely sure that was okay with the satyr population—and he was in human form, tucked neatly into his wheel chair. I crossed my arms. He looked so calm, like nothing ever shook him; like he wasn't shaken right now, even when Percy, who possibly the best thing that ever happened to this camp, was missing. Like he wasn't sorry he had snapped at me at all.

"What, Chiron?" I huffed crossly. If he wanted to be this way, fine. Two could play at that game.

A slight frown creased his brow. He probably wasn't used to me acting this way, but a turn of events can drastically alter a person. Not that I felt drastically altered; just like I was really missing my boyfriend. I thought about how he was supposed to stay here for a little while, after he dropped off those demigods. What we were supposed to do-

"Annabeth," Chiron said rather impatiently. "Did you hear me?" He must have gotten the impression that I didn't hear, so he just repeated himself. "I said that, if you think you can handle it, that is, I will allow you, along with another camper of course, to search Percy's cabin for any hints or evidence to where he may have disappeared to."

I smiled despite myself. I bounced up and threw my arms around Chiron. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said. "I'll go right away!" I bounded toward the path, sure that there was at least some clue to where Percy had gone in his cabin. Maybe he had been back there since he dropped off the demigods.

"Annabeth?" Chiron called after me. "Wait outside the Poseidon cabin while I send one of the Stohl Brothers!"

I stopped dead in my tracks, almost tumbling down the porch steps. The Stohl Brothers? The most notorious thieves in this camp?

"Eh, Chiron? Are you sure you don't want to rethink that?" I asked. "I mean, I'd prefer if they didn't take any of Percy's things."

Chiron wheeled himself to the edge of the porch. There was a slight smile on his face, like he knew something I didn't. That was another thing. I'd always felt like Chiron and I were really in sync, always on the same page or wavelength. I didn't really want to lose that, but it was slipping, and it felt like I couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Don't you worry, dear," he said knowingly. "The Stohls may be… mischievous, but they are also very observant… and I'll be searching whichever one goes with you thoroughly afterward."

I smiled too. "Alright. Thanks again." I started down the flight of steps, but he stopped me again.

"And, Annabeth?" he said. "I know you haven't been taking this too well—,"that was an understatement—"but you shouldn't give up and…" he hesitated, "you know you always have me to lean on."

I glanced off into the distance, where the sun was setting. "Yeah," I said. "I know."

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><strong>New chapter any day now! Reviews are greatly appriciated!<strong> 


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